Divergence pt II
by BonesBird
Summary: What happened on the Columbia while Enterprise was sabotaged. Post-ep for "Divergence", told from Captain Hernandez's POV


**Title: Divergence pt II  
****Summary: What happened on the Columbia while Enterprise was sabotaged. Post-ep for "Divergence", told from Captain Hernandez's POV  
****Lyrics: Golden – New Found Glory.**

**So, this started life as a drabble. Then the lovely Erika Hernandez wouldn't shut up, and demanded I told the whole story. So. Here you have it. The alternate scene. The characters on the Columbia are taken from the novels "Gods Of Night", "Mere Mortals" and "Lost Souls" by David Mack. Not many folk have taken on writing Hernandez, maybe I can make a little fanfic niche for myself here, telling her stories.**

* * *

_**This could be the verse, always reminding you  
**__**Of your battle-scars, all your could of beens  
**__**Only know what I've been through  
**__**But for luck I still cross my fingers**_

* * *

All she could do was look at the viewscreen and hope that this would all go right. She had spoken to Trip about his ideas before he'd gone and suited up, and she hadn't liked any of them, and she wasn't best pleased about the idea of travelling at 5.2 with only 50 metres between Columbia and Enterprise, but they needed too otherwise in half an hour there wouldn't be an Enterprise. She hit the contact on her chair as the approached at 5.3, faster than their safety margins allowed.

"Commander Tucker, are you ready for this" she asked, hoping she sounded calmer than she felt. Her nerves were frayed, and though she trusted Lieutenant Mealia, her helmsman, and his counterpart on Enterprise, it still worried her, being so close.

"As ready as I'll ever be" Now he did sound nervous, but that didn't surprise her, in a few minutes he was going to be travelling at warp 5.2, without a ship around him for safety. She didn't have time to reassure him though, they didn't have the time for anything more than getting the job done.

"Open a channel" She ordered towards the comms officer, a young Scot by the name of Valerian, if she remembered rightly. The Ensign hit the contacts and nodded in her direction. "Columbia to Enterprise"

"This is Archer" she felt the smile tug at the corner of her lips, and was suddenly glad her crew were all facing away from her,

"We're matching your speed and trajectory as requested" she didn't have to tell the helm what to do, he knew his job, and that was enough for her, even as she looked up and out of the viewscreen again to see the Enterprise barely ahead of them.

"Standby Columbia" she almost sighed in frustration, now they were here she wanted it over and done with. She waited and looked left and right, suddenly feeling like she should be doing something productive, sitting and staring at the viewscreen wasn't going to help this. She was lost in her thoughts when Jonathan's voice filtered back onto her bridge "Start your rotation Columbia." She smiled and knew this was it.

"Approaching Enterprise..." Mealia called from helm as Columbia moved closer to her sister, "70 meters"

"Hernandez to all hands, prepare for warp field contact" she called on the intercom throughout her ship. Only seconds later that contact occurred, a little more violent than she had expected. She didn't want to think what was going on a few decks below them.

"Tucker to Captain Hernandez, I'm heading out" the nervousness she'd sensed in his voice only a minute earlier seemed to have been replaced by an adventurers spirit, his excitement made her suddenly wish she were the one making this trip, though if it were here, she'd probably be terrified.

"Quick as you can, Commander" she finally let herself smile and stand up, walking behind tactical to view some of the readouts herself, wanting to see how the ship was coping to the stress of travelling so close.

"I never thought I'd see the stars like this" came Tucker's soft voice, filled with wonderment, and she could only imagine what he saw, but she knew they couldn't keep this up for long.

"Eyes on the cable, Commander, I need you back here in one piece" She closed her eyes a second as the first shudder hit the ship, she looked up "Is that a problem on our end or on theirs?"

"The joint field is destabilising, it's not a problem on our end, we're running at peak efficiency" her science officer said, as they all looked to the screen for a moment

"Let's hope Jonathan and his crew know how to fix it before it's too late"

"Sir, Enterprise is moving out of position,"

"Keep with them lieutenant, as best you can"

"Yes ma'am" the next few minutes were tense, shudders still plaguing the ship, Brynn calling out the distance between the two ships. She kept her ear out, hoping to hear the call that Tucker had made it to Enterprise successfully.

When the shuddering stopped for a moment she looked towards the helm "Distance"

"60 metres"

"Hold us steady until we know what Commander Tucker is planning to do"

* * *

"Archer to Columbia" Jonathan's voice was taunt and stressed, she reached forward from where she was standing beside the comm console.

"Hernandez here"

"You're not going to like this, Erika." That statement sent a shot of fear and adrenaline through her body, she set of walking around the bridge, thinking and listening at the same time.

"What do you need us to do?"

"We need you to extend your warp field around Enterprise while Trip shuts down and reinitialises our reactor"

"We can't hold that for long, two minutes on the outside, and that's if I shunt everything to the reactor, including life support" She shook her head as her XO and science officers both looked at her with a combination of horror and intrigue.

"Trip says he has a shortcut"

"You're right, I don't like this, let us do the calculations and we'll go on your signal" she cut the contact and called down to Engineering "Rivers, we're about to shunt everything to the reactor, I need you to be ready to extend our warp field around Enterprise and keep us together while you do it. I'm sending Commander Fletcher down to help" She nodded to her XO, who immediately turned to the lift. She hit the contact for and intraship announcement and gave her next orders "This is the captain, we're about to share our warp field with Enterprise, be braced for turbulence" she moved round, standing a little behind her chair and looking around, waiting for Engineering to tell her.

"We're as ready as we ever will be, Captain" Fletcher called up a few minutes later, just enough time for a lead weight to form in the pit of her stomach, the nerves about something that had never been done before had always been right there in her mind, but this one was something dangerous that had never been done before. It made her grateful that her ship wasn't the one in trouble.

"People keep saying that to me today." She shook her head at the irony of the words, and turned back to the comm station "Valerian, open a channel. Columbia to Enterprise"

"Go ahead" Jonathan sounded as stressed as she could imagine, his ship had been sabotaged and was less than a half hour away from being completely destroyed. She looked out at the stars speeding by her ship faster than they should be, and frowned just a little.

"I've routed everything I've got to my warp field. Do me a favour Jonathan, make this quick" she smirked as he ended the comm she let her crew do their jobs, feeling somewhat useless as she did. She went into her own thoughts, thinking how she could best redistribute personnel to help Enterprise when they managed to stop her from blowing up. At this range she wouldn't know anyway, the explosion would take Columbia with her.

"Captain, 40 seconds" El-Rashad spoke up, his eyes still glued on his instruments as he tried to keep the field stable, much as he was sure was going on in Engineering. She knew that Valerian was keeping the channel open for her, so she spoke to the ceiling.

"Columbia to Enterprise, you've got about 40 seconds" she heard the tightness in her own voice, and made a conscious effort to hide it.

"Understood" she heard before the next wave of turbulence hit the ship, causing her to grab onto the tactical console rather than be thrown across the bridge.

"Time!" She called, pushing herself up again and moving over towards the helm, her hand on the back of Maelia's chair.

"20 seconds"

"Enterprise we're losing the field " She mentally counted down the last 20 seconds in her head, in a morbid type of countdown. When they didn't all blow up she knew that whatever Tucker had done had been successful, and Enterprise was back under her own power.

"Enterprise to Columbia. Thanks for the lift" the relief in Jonathan's voice told her everything, the sabotaged subroutines had been purged, and the engines were back in the safe zone.

"You're not getting away with my chief engineer that easily" she smiled, wondering how Jonathan would actually take that statement, but she heard the almost inaudible laugh, amplified as it was by the comm.

"Do you have any plans for the next few days?"

"What have you got in mind?"

"Drop to impulse and we can talk while the engineers check over my engine"

"You're on, Captain" She grinned, and tapped Maelia on the shoulder, "drop to impulse, match speed and prepare docking procedures with Enterprise." The day was done, and it was time for her to talk to Jonathan, and find out what his plans were for the end of this. She crossed her fingers, hoping that it was something less dangerous than what had happened here.


End file.
